Tuesday, March 21, 2017

An African Archbishop is to be the Church of England's new 'ambassador' to Rome.

Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi, former head of the Anglican Church in Burundi, has been appointed as the representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Vatican and director of the Anglican Centre in Rome.The move comes at a time of warm relations between the two churches with Pope Francis becoming the first pontiff to visit the Anglican church in Rome, praying side-by-side with an Anglican bishop.

Archbishop Ntahoturi succeeds David Moxon who retires in June.

A former presidential chief of staff to Jean-Baptiste Bagaza, Ntahoturi was imprisoned for three years after President Bagaza was overthrown in a military coup in 1987.